Coldwater is a village located in Simcoe County, Ontario and located just south of GErogian Bay. Colwater is the point where highway 12 from Lindsay (in the Kawartha Lakes) and Oshawa and Whitby (along Highway 401 and Lake Ontario) connects to Highway 400 between Toronto, Barrie, and Parry Sound. Highway 12 here is is part of the Ontario Southern Route of the Trans-Canada
Coldwater History
The area was originally inhabited by the Anishinaabe people, who had a village here named “Ka-be-wa-nung”, meaning “where the stream widens”. In the early 1800s, European settlers arrived in the area and established a sawmill and gristmill. The settlement was first called “Coldwater Mills” and later changed to simply “Coldwater”.
This community has oldest portion of Highway 12, originally known as the Coldwater Portage and later the Coldwater Road, connecting the modern sites of Orillia and Coldwater by a 23 km (14 mi) trail. John Colborne (later the Governor of Upper Canada) surveyed the portage in 1830 and had it widened for wagon use. As the area was settled, the need for a road connection with the south grew and by 1844 the Sturgeon Bay Road was built from Coldwater to Sturgeon Bay, bia the Atherley Narrows, which separates Lake Simcoe from Lake Couchiching. The portion of the route between Whitby and Orillia until the second half of the 1840s.
In 1858, the arrival of the railway helped the village grow faster, not only boosting the local economy, but bringing tourists. Coldwater became a popular destination for fishing and hunting.
During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Coldwater experienced significant growth and development. Many businesses and industries were established in the village, including manufacturing, lumbering, and agriculture.